Touch panels have a feature that an operation can be carried out by a direct touch on a screen. The touch panels are currently utilized for mobile phones, ATMs of financial agencies, and the like.
However, such a touch panel has a flat screen as a screen on which a user of the touch panel touches. Therefore, for example, in a case where a user is to enter characters, it is difficult to find out a position of a key and the like, as compared to character entry with use of a conventional keyboard. This tends to cause an erroneous input and the like.
Presently, there is a touch panel that has been developed by giving a haptic feedback function to a touch panel used for a mobile phone etc. Haptic feedback gives a haptic response to a user, in accordance with a usage condition of a touch panel of the user. For example, when a user uses a keyboard displayed on a screen of a mobile phone, the haptic feedback presents unevenness in accordance with positions of keys so that a position of each key is notified to the user, and thereby gives the user a sense of touching a real keyboard. This makes it possible to prevent the above-described erroneous input.
Patent Literature 1 discloses a technique that provides projections having a shape corresponding to a keyboard shape, on a screen at the time when an operation is carried out on a touch panel. FIG. 19 is a cross sectional view illustrating a touch panel of Patent Literature 1.
As illustrated in FIG. 19, the touch panel of Patent Literature 1 is provided with a pillar 504 having an uneven shape below a screen. Then, when a user is to carry out an operation such as character entry by use of a keyboard on the screen, the pillar 504 rises and provides an uneven shape of the pillar on a surface. This makes it possible to form a keyboard shape such as dots or edges. This improves usability of the touch panel.